GoodSeeing
Home › Locations › Maricopa

Maricopa

33.058° N   112.048° W  ·  356 M
76 /100
PEAK
A genuinely good night — 3 hours of clear, dark sky from 02:00.
BEST WINDOW 02:00–05:00 · ASTRO DARK 21:00–05:00 · MOON 1%
Transparency
0.89
Seeing
1.00
Cloud
0%
Moon
1%

Excellent tonight

Hour by hour, local to Maricopa. Colour encodes the score and nothing else; every other measurement is luminance.

Sky state
Lighter = daylight and twilight  ·  unshaded = astronomical dark
Score
19
20
21
22
23
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
0
22
68
33
38
38
25
45
71
76
28
0
BEST WINDOW
Low cloud
0%
0%
0%
0%
2%
2%
1%
0%
0%
0%
0%
0%
Mid cloud
10%
2%
9%
27%
5%
23%
26%
23%
0%
0%
0%
2%
High cloud
16%
16%
16%
86%
93%
70%
93%
52%
9%
0%
4%
9%
Transparency
0.97
0.89
0.52
0.72
0.68
0.67
0.33
0.58
0.51
0.51
0.49
0.48
Seeing
0.84
1.00
1.00
0.75
0.77
0.69
0.73
0.79
0.74
0.79
0.83
0.88
Moon clear
0%
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
down
Inspect

Cloud tracks show clear sky — a longer bar is better. The figure inside each track is the raw measurement.

Why this hour scored what it did
19 Clouded out · 0/100
Starting from
100
Cloud
−17
Transparency
−1
Seeing
−3
Moonlight
−0
Darkness
−78
Score
0
CLOUD 25% LOW 0% MID 10% HIGH 16% SUN 2.7° MOON 7.0° / 0% WIND 4 TEMP 33°
Excellent 75+ Good 55+ Fair 35+ Poor 15+ Not worth it Seeing is estimated from surface wind — see how we score.

What are you doing tonight?

The same forecast, weighted for the target. Planetary work barely cares about moonlight; long exposures die on high cloud a visual observer would never notice.

SET UP 01:30 · OBSERVE 02:00–05:00 · 3H · MEAN 65

Darkness and moonlight dominate. Faint fuzzies need a genuinely dark sky more than they need steady air.

192123010305
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 02:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 05:00
SET UP 01:30 · OBSERVE 02:00–06:00 · 4H · MEAN 66

Seeing is everything and moonlight is irrelevant. Bright targets punch through twilight, so darkness barely counts.

192123010305
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 02:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 06:00MOONLIGHT IGNORED FOR THIS TARGET
SET UP 01:30 · OBSERVE 02:00–05:00 · 3H · MEAN 61

Tolerates soft seeing, but high cloud wrecks a wide frame and moonlight raises the background everywhere.

192123010305
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 02:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 05:00
SET UP 02:30 · OBSERVE 03:00–05:00 · 2H · MEAN 65

Needs conditions to hold still for hours. Sustained transparency matters more than any single good hour.

192123010305
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 03:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 05:00
SET UP 01:30 · OBSERVE 02:00–05:00 · 3H · MEAN 68

Naked eye, whole sky. Total cloud and moonlight are the only things that count.

192123010305
HIGH CLOUD CLEARS 02:00TWILIGHT BEGINS 05:00
Advertisement
Reserved

The next week of nights

Tonight · 12 Aug
76
Excellent
MOON 1%
02:00–05:00
Tomorrow · 13 Aug
67
Good
MOON 3%
22:00–05:00
Friday · 14 Aug
87
Excellent
MOON 7%
21:00–00:00
Saturday · 15 Aug
27
Poor
MOON 17%
Sunday · 16 Aug
98
Excellent
MOON 25%
23:00–00:00
Monday · 17 Aug
93
Excellent
MOON 35%
23:00–00:00
Tuesday · 18 Aug
35
Fair
MOON 44%
23:00–00:00
Advertisement
Reserved

Nearby locations

About this forecast

Conditions for Maricopa, Arizona, United States are computed from the MET Norway forecast model for these exact coordinates, combined with sun and moon positions we calculate directly. The score weighs cloud cover by layer, atmospheric transparency, estimated seeing, moonlight and how dark the sky actually gets. Read the full method →